TT: There I was, minding my business (mostly) and carrying on with my life, when I see THE email. It mentioned that we will be able to play table tennis at the office! Brought up on badminton and squash, my first reaction was, “Hmmm….good for those who like the game. But, I really can’t see myself playing TT”. A day went by and then on the next one, as I was walking by, I saw the door to the “TT room” open. I thought, “I will just take a peek and go off”. Ha! Famous last words. I ended up watching a complete game. Next thing, I cornered another colleague, one equally clueless about TT, to come and play with me. We managed to hit the ball…all over the walls, and the room, and, once in a while, toward the table. That was it. I was determined to conquer this pesky little game. I started pleading with people to play a “few practice shots”. I borrowed slippers on the days I had come to the office wearing heels. I cajoled my way into doubles games, just so that I could hold the racket and try to play for a few minutes. The results so far? Well, some of my hitherto friendly colleagues have developed a habit of mysteriously disappearing when they see me appearing near their seats while others have flatly refused to play with me and accused me of ruining their game. I have ruined two perfectly good pair of slippers, and I catch myself practising with the spatula in the kitchen and dreaming about missed shots. So I guess, it’s official…I have been bitten by the table tennis bug.
ST: Before someone else writes about this on the blog or post some photos (as they have been threatening), let me admit that I am an unabashed fan of Shashi Tharoor (ST). And while I am a regular attendee of many book launches, I have to confess that an added incentive to attend Renuka RajaRao’s Study in America was the fact that he was the guest of honour at this one. The launch was quite a success with both Nandan Nilekani and Shashi Tharoor mentioning the usefulness of the book, as well as a desire that hopefully, one day, we will have a book about studying in
Eclipse watching: As anyone who knows me at all can vouch, waking up at 6:30 am is not my thing. But Tuesday night, just as I was about to fall sleep, I realized that this eclipse was a big deal and the next one will be at 2132, which I think I will not be able to see. So, I set my alarm at 5:30 am and actually woke up, only to find out that it’s going to be one hour later. I woke up an hour later and realized that my family had already gone up to the terrace. I quickly grabbed my cell and the house keys (later on I found out that I had grabbed the car keys!) and ran. Up on the roof, my father was trying out his old eclipse goggles and we took turns looking through them. The sun was a perfect crescent (See the eclipse photo, which is courtesy of Jason Lonne) and we watched while the slice of sun became smaller and slowly disappeared into the clouds. One of our neighbours came up as well and we reminisced about other eclipses and other places, and then fell quiet, savouring the beauty of the moment.
Jonaki
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